Preview — Fantasy City
by John Hannigan

Fantasy City: Pleasure and Profit in the Postmodern Metropolis

This is an analysis of the postindustrial city as a site of entertainment. By discussing examples from a wide variety of venues, including casinos, malls, heritage developments and theme parks, the author traces the rise of urban entertainment at the beginning of this century, its decline after World War II to its renaissance in the 1980s and 1990s. Do such areas of fantasThis is an analysis of the postindustrial city as a site of entertainment. By discussing examples from a wide variety of venues, including casinos, malls, heritage developments and theme parks, the author traces the rise of urban entertainment at the beginning of this century, its decline after World War II to its renaissance in the 1980s and 1990s. Do such areas of fantasy which highlight the middle classes search for risk free mass entertainment, end up destroying communities or create new groupings of shared identities and experiences? Written around three theoretical perspectives - structuralist, cultural and constructionist - the book is specifically aimed at students. It offers insights into urban development and drawing on extensive material from business, cultural studies and urban planning, the growth of the theme park city is shown to signify not only the arrival of a new urban space, but also the eventual destruction of the inner city....more